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Olympics

Friday, 19 September 2014

Had the good luck to work on Nike's ad campaign this year for the World Cup, culminating in a 5 minute short film 'The Last Game'!
I was involved way back at the initial pitch stage doing character design work, and then all the way through production (over painting and reworking 3D models for approval). I was also heavily involved in the Print and static ads throughout the competition itself doing paint overs and adjustments.

I've now had permission to share some of the work (more can be found here)!

Was a fantastic team and project to be a part of, and don't forget to check out the amazing Gillian Read who did the initial design sketches for a lot of these characters!

You can check out the finished film below. Directed by Jon Saunders, Produced by Passion Pictures.

Friday, 11 April 2014

Recently discovered a local lifedrawing class, managed to get to a few of the weekly evening sessions but last weekend attended a special all day event! Still very rusty but felt like I was finding my feet towards the end of the day.
After a little push decided to pick up some charcoal and a trusty brush pen and let go a little, much more interesting.

Many thanks to Monica for playing statue for us. Additional thanks to Blogger for playing havok with the contrast in these....

Tuesday, 1 October 2013

I've been very conscious of how 'digital' everything seems to be lately. That's not necessarily a bad thing but where I can I'm definitely looking to bring more traditional elements back into what I make.

These are a couple of portraits I finished up over the last couple of weeks, based on the titular characters from Robert Lewis Stevenson's 'The Strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde'.

Although the frame is entirely digital, there's much more of the original drawings present in the portraits that I would have normally.

Technique aside, I tried to use elements of Victorian London such as the buildings and bridges to mimic the ornate design of typical portraits of the era. Just something to add a little narrative to what otherwise would have been very straightforward portraits.

Looking to bring in some watercolour or gouache into the next one, fingers crossed!

Thursday, 5 September 2013

Alongside having lots of fun making terrible art with alien traditional mediums (I'm looking at you watercolour....) I'm currently working on a few book and cover projects (hurray!), and have been given permission to share a couple of the chapter images created for one of them.

Evil seagulls are sadly not the subject of the book....

Pictured: A book

The book is titled Mike Wright - The Fabric of Time and is scheduled for publication early next year!
I'm doing the cover as well as the chapter illustrations so really looking forward to seeing/sharing the final product.

Wednesday, 31 July 2013

Late last year I was approached to produce a series of illustrations for an upcoming album from rapper 'Lockstarr' entitled 'Razorblades and Hand grenades'. Album cover, social media banners and promotional illustrations were all needed, and needed in a more linework focused 'comic' style.

I have learned to respect the line, for she is a fickle mistress, and will punish you at any given opportunity. I've also developed an even greater respect for people who work primarily with ink and line, the Bernie Wrightson's of this world are nothing short of sorcerers!

Here's the highlights of the project..

Back Cover/Interior

Final cover illustration linework

The actual final version of the cover features razor blades floating in the champagne glasses as well as the grenade, but I felt like it worked better without so that's the version I'll be showing off (Sorry Dion!).

Final artwork

Promotional image

Social media banner

As you can see, she (Lockstarr) had some pretty specific ideas about the kind of imagery she wanted but luckily was also very willing to work with me and I think we ended up with some pretty interesting images.

Below are a few sketches that didn't make the cut but I enjoyed none-the-less! This is probably one of the only projects I've worked on where I was really excited about all the sketches done

Hi, I'm a rap stereotype...

Bombs...

This was my favourite sketch for the cover, but oh well, maybe next album?

Tuesday, 12 March 2013

Been a bit scarce around here recently, thankfully it's because I've been pretty busy with work. I'm hoping to be able to share some of it soon but in the meantime here's a little personal project from between the client stuff.

Trip-tic of Film Noir inspired portraits.

The anti-hero, ladies man, and wise cracking badass investigator. The seductive and destructive 'femme fatale', and the mysterious and devious villain known only as 'The Count'.

It's always fun to do something for yourself, hoping to get some more personal work done soon.

Friday, 26 October 2012

First up, an old (few months) image inspired by a night out with good friends and good music.

Also a satyr, in a forest, not looking at too much.....this image isn't finished and probably never will be, it began as a sketch and evolved into an experiment with background and values. I've got a few more like this, various attempts to use more silhouette and less colour. They're fun but pretty terrible compositionally.

Last but not least this image (which I pretentiously titled Blue Africa) was also an experiment of sorts, while painting one of the afore mentioned experimental images I found myself playing around with a monotone palette and decided to challenge myself to create an image using one colour. It's pretty crazy just how much variation you can get with such a restricted palette and just how important colour relationships are.

Thursday, 9 August 2012

Over the last few weeks I've received some really lovely emails expressing how much people have enjoyed the GetAheadoftheGames transport posters for the Olympic Games (Go team GB!). I've had conversations about specific characters, peoples favourite poster, hidden meanings, and even the Illuminati, but what I've been asked about most is process.

So here goes..

Initially we'd be given a brief description and/or a basic sketch (think stick man) of what was needed for the poster. From there we'd have a limited amount of time to get a first pass or rough sketch drawn up for approval. This was usually done traditionally (with good old fashioned pencil and paper!), however for whatever reason this one ended up being sketched digitally.

If everyone is happy, then we'd be asked to do a final drawing and layout the poster ready for painting.

After making any changes (I was asked to change the sign she was holding to a no entry sign on this particular poster) we'd do a flat colour block in for one last approval before the painting begins. (I seem to have misplaced this particular step sorry!)

Then after many hours of painting and some more back and forth, we reach the final painting. At this stage the painting is passed onto M&C Saatchi and final tweaks will be made before it's laid out with everything (type etc.) and sent to print!

Taken from www.getaheadofthegames.com

Aaaaand done! Here's one of the final posters featuring the artwork.

The basic process

There were a dozen artists working on the campaign, with each poster being a collaborative effort. Often with several artists working on the same poster at various stages throughout the process. Each finished poster represents a huge team effort, and I was privileged to part of it.

Click here to download a large selection of the finished printed posters.

Tuesday, 7 August 2012

I hope everyone has been enjoying the Games, seems like as good a time as any to share a few more bits from the Get Ahead of the Games campaign. All the posters are now out and about so I should be able to share some of the full poster work very soon.

Here's a few character sketches and some heads, drawn for the 'Avoid the Ques' poster here.

Along with Henry (the guy with the newspaper) who I was lucky enough to be asked to paint up as well as redesign.